I was recently interviewed for a story about the night skies in Grand Marais. When interviewed for a story like this, you usually only get a small fraction of what you said into the story. I had a couple of quotes in the story, but thought it would be worthwhile posting all the answers from the questions I was asked. Here they are.
1. As an accomplished photographer, what about the North Shore area’s night skies make it unique from other parts of the country or world where you might shoot at night?
Most of the county has been extremely dark, especially once you get up the Gunflint towards the end of the trail. We have an area at the end of the trail that is a Bortle 1, which means it has some of the darkest skies anywhere. If you are in the Midwest, it’s unique in that it has the darkest skies east of a line that runs from ND to TX. Unfortunately, as you get nearer to Grand Marais — because Grand Marais doesn’t have sufficient lighting codes — we’re seeing the dark skies diminish.
2. You teach a class at North House Folk School about taking photographs at night… what is a common reaction from your students when you show them the night skies we have access to here in northeastern Minnesota?
I teach more classes about night photography outside of the North House through my own program than I do through the North House. I run several 5-day long night sky specific courses through my own programs in the county each year.
Night sky tourism has exploded in the last five years and now most of my students are well-traveled for night sky photography, so they have been to dark areas and seek out dark areas to visit when planning their vacations. My repeat students are always disappointed at the degradation of our night skies in Cook County. Those that came 10 years ago can see the difference between how much darker the sky was 10 years ago than what it is now. When the airport installed its overwhelming bright new light, I heard from about a dozen former students who were up shooting in the area. They were disappointed and wondered what I could do about it. The hospital lights and the lights at the school reach far beyond Grand Marais and have degraded the sky in many previously popular spots for night photography. My students notice things like this, because they can look back at images they took years ago and compare.
3. What about this setting we have makes it appealing to both professional and amateur photographers when it comes to the night sky? Is that unique when compared to other parts of the country?
The biggest unique feature about Cook County for nightscape photography is the easy access to a large number of lakes that feature varied shorelines and topography. Nightscape photography is about juxtapositioning the sky with a ground feature. That ties the night sky to something earthly and relatable and speaks to the insignificance of our existence — we’re just a passing piece of dust compared to the universe and look at how small this ground feature is compared to the vast expanse — as well as our connection to everything we can see. Before the big bang, we were all one and the same and by combining an interesting feature such as the shoreline of a lake or treeline with the night sky, we can see how varied our existence has become compared to where it came from.
4. Feel free to add anything else about the night sky in the BWCA or North Shore area you think readers of Northern Wilds might find interesting…
I feel it’s important to understand that night skies aren’t permanent. Each new light bulb installed degrades the night sky. When I see the lights the county installed at the Gunflint Trail and Devil Track Road combined with the new blueish lights at the muni golf course, I still feel sadness for the loss of that location for night sky photography and night sky viewing. It used to be a great place to send people to watch for the northern lights. The new street lights there wash out the night sky and have degraded the spot to the point where it isn’t worth visiting. Same with many spots on Devil Track Lake with the new airport light. Light trespasses beyond where it is needed and that contaminates our skies. It’s like trying to cook a frog. If you put it in boiling water, it’ll jump out. But, if you start with cold water and slowly heat the water up, the frog will never notice that its getting cooked. The loss of the night sky is similar. We don’t notice the new lights slowly diminishing our dark skies. Even though our skies get degraded, we still believe they are great. The night sky resource that Cook County could easily be lost if action isn’t taken to stop that loss now. Things you can do:
- Only install outdoor lighting where it is needed, in the lowest amount of light needed, don’t allow it to trespass onto your neighbors property and turn off when not needed.
- Use bulbs that are 2200K or lower. Our current bulbs in the city lights are about 1800K. You can now buy 2000K outdoor lights and those are better than 2700K, which is the old recommendation. Lower numbers are better for the night sky and your health.
- Shield all outdoor lighting from going upward or sideways outside of where it is needed. You can see a good example of how not to do outdoor lighting at the hospital. They used more light than needed. It trespasses onto the neighbors’ property — even bouncing off the cliff behind their houses to come into the rear windows, and the lights are 5000K lights, which cause bad light pollution, glare for folks that wear glasses and it increases the risks for health problems, including breast and other cancers.